Sarah Cawood found her own breast cancer diagnosis very "triggering" after losing a friend to cancer last year.
The presenter appeared on ITV's Loose Women today to chat to the panellists about her Stage 1 cancer diagnosis, as she urged women to get checked for signs of breast cancer which was discovered for her when she had her mammogram in August. In a heartbreaking chat, she told panellists Ruth Langsford, Coleen Nolan, Janet Street Porter and Linda Robson how she was doing.
Whilst she is feeling positive going forward, Sarah admitted she lost a friend last year to an aggressive form of breast cancer. The mum died at the age of 33, and what happened to her impacted how Sarah told her own kids of her diagnosis.
Speaking about losing her friend, she said: "Because of what happened to Faye last year, she was a school mum friend, and so we were so worried that they would just be like, 'Oh well that’s it, mummy's a goner.'
"We explained to them it could be any of these things and what I said was let’s cross those bridges when we come to them. I think we all catastrophise too much about life. Why worry about something that hasn’t actually happened yet. Try not to… There’s no point."
Sarah recalled how the doctors found a "tiny, pea-sized lump" and following more tests, she has since undergone a lumpectomy, as she added: "I had a lumpectomy last Wednesday and now I’m here. That’s how easy it is. It’s one day.
"That’s why nobody should be scared. Especially at my stage. It’s really quite straightforward."
Sarah feels so "lucky" that her cancer was caught so early, and urged people to get checked sooner rather than later.
She said: "I feel so lucky. I can’t cry into my gin, can I, when I’m Stage 1 and there are other people out there that may be Stage 3 or Stage 4 or they’ve been terminally diagnosed? That would be really unfair of me.
"I want people to get checked and face whatever’s coming down the track head on and be there to help them."
Sarah previously recalled how she felt when she received her diagnosis, adding: "I did the lying in bed at night, not watching my children grow up thing. I always think cancer seems like a slow death. It’s like being chucked out of the party early."
